Knitted gloves are commonly used in handling and light assembly conditions. Knitted gloves used for these purposes are currently made using flat knitting machines that use a number of needles in the form of a needle array and a single yarn to knit the gloves using eight basic components to comprise the glove. These eight components include one component for each of the five fingers, two components for the palm including an upper section and a lower section, and one component for the wrist area. All of these sections are cylinders or conical sections that join to each other fashioning the general anatomical shape of a hand. Conventional knitting processes use a knitting machine to knit each of these areas in a particular sequence, generally one finger at a time, beginning with the pinky finger and continuing on through the ring finger and middle finger to the forefinger. After each finger is knitted using only selected needles in the needle array, the knitting process for this finger is stopped, and yarn is cut and bound. The knitted finger is held by holders, weighted down by sinkers. The next finger is knit sequentially one at a time using a different set of needles in the needle array. When all four fingers are knitted in this fashion, the knitting machine then knits the upper section of the palm, picking stitches from each of the previously knit four fingers. The method of knitting individual fingers and picking stitches to knit the upper palm section with crotches that are well-fitted is discussed in U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2004/0055070 by Maeda et al. After knitting an appropriate length of upper palm, the thumb portion is initiated, using a separate set of needles in the needle array, and the lower section of the palm is knit using all of the needles in the needle array. Finally, the knitting machine knits the wrist component to the desired length.
The knitting stitches used at the fingertips are generally tighter than the stitches used elsewhere in the glove to improve the strength of the glove in this area, where more pressure is likely to be applied. Depending on the size of the needles used and the denier of the yarn to knit the gloves, a certain number of courses are used to create each of the eight components of the glove. The finer the gauge of needle used, the higher the number of courses for each component to create the same size of a finished glove. Changing needles or the denier of a yarn is extremely difficult in a continuous process and generally a continuous yarn of pre-selected denier and a corresponding needle size are commercially used. While this standardization in needle size and number of courses permits the manufacturing of a glove or liner with a standard shape, that shape does not accommodate variations in size and shape of individual fingers and hands.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,084 to Andrews et al. discloses protective articles made of a composite fabric. These protective articles provide an unprecedented level of safety and comfort and are made of two or more dissimilar yarns including thermoplastics, elastomers, or metals, each having dissimilar mechanical properties and characteristics. Thus, the protective article does not use a heavy weight fabric in regions of the article where exceptional protection is not critical and avoids the accompanying loss of tactile sensitivity. The protective article uses dissimilar fibers at selected protective fabric locations and does not aim to conform to the anatomical shape of a hand using a single yarn.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,550,285 to Nishitani discloses a yarn feeding apparatus. This apparatus minimizes fluctuation in tension of a knitting yarn, and an accurate length of the knitting yarn is fed, even if the amount of demand for the knitting yarn is suddenly changed. A knitting yarn is interposed between a main roller and a driven roller with yarn storage having a buffer rod, the inclination of which controls the storage. An angle sensor detects this angular inclination and uses a PID algorithm to predict the amount of knitting yarn demanded. The PID algorithm controls a servo-motor that drives the driven roller, such that the tip portion of the buffer rod is brought to its original position at the start of knitting. This device minimizes the fluctuations in knitting yarn tension due to sudden demand and is not programmed to alter the knitting yarn tension to adjust stitch dimensions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,032 to Shima discloses a stitch control mechanism for a flat knitting machine. A stitch control mechanism is applicable for a flat knitting machine and controls loop size in a knit fabric. A spiral cam plate is attached to one surface of a stitch control cam. The spiral cam plate is held between a pair of cam rollers, and the pair of cam rollers is supported on a guide plate. The stitch cam has a portion slidably fitted in a guide slot formed in a base plate. The stitch dimension or loop size is controlled by the stitch control cam and can be changed by a computer program. This patent discloses the hardware necessary for stitch dimension control and does not disclose a knitted glove or liner with anatomic features providing improved fit.
Standard shaped gloves or liners created by the current processes bring with them several disadvantages. First, the fit across finger knuckles and the center of the palm is tight, reducing glove or liner flexibility and ultimately reducing hand dexterity. Second, the standard gloves or liners bag or gap in areas where the hand normally tapers, e.g., like the lower palm and wrist area. This bagginess or gapping results in excess fabric, which can bunch and catch on protruding objects. Additionally, excess fabric at the lower palm created by the standard glove or liner shape causes an irregular foam line on those liners that are dipped in latex. Finally, the excess fabric at the lower palm of the standard glove or liner causes a high scrap rate in printing information on the gloves or liners.
In an attempt to solve these problems, knit gloves or liners can be made of a larger than standard size to shrink them to achieve a better fit. These larger gloves are reduced in size by tumbling them in heat or using a laundry process. These processes as used on the larger gloves, however, may produce gloves that have improved fit across the knuckles, but do not address the excess fabric in areas where the hand normally tapers, like the lower palm and wrist, since the shrinkage is uniform across the glove. Additionally, tumbling or a laundry process would require an additional manufacturing step as well as additional labor, both of which would increase the cost of the finished product. A standard tumbling process, using constant heat and time, would also fail to create the desired gloves and liners because of differences in heat sensitivity of the fibers selected to knit the various gloves and liners in a manufacturing operation. Further, these types of post-knitting processes would require additional development and manufacturing time to determine appropriate time and heat combinations to optimize the production of a particular glove or liner.
A glove that could be made to fit the contours of a human hand better to improve grip and that would not require post-knitting processing would, therefore, be an important improvement in the art. The present invention seeks to provide such a glove. This and other objects and advantages, as well as additional inventive features, will be provided by the detailed description provided herein.